Car tyre longevity- cheap and nasty or pricey branded?

The front tyres on my car are about to need replacing. In the past I've either punctured or the car has died before I've needed to replace the tyres so I've not paid much attention to tread life.

The tyres on there now are conti sport contacts and have done just over 20,000 miles. They are what came on the car. Am I better getting the same again (£60 plus fitting) or will some cheap and nasty tyres with really hard rubber for about £40 do just as well? Longevity is import for me as I do a lot of miles for work and don't drive in a spirited manner very often at all now.

I have noticed that the cheaper tyres have a better fuel economy rating too but if they last half as long then they'll be a waste of money.

I dont drive like a nun but i'm no boy racer. My last mondeo came with cheap "energy saving" tyres. Drove like they were made of wood. They were pretty bad in the dry and in the wet they were scary!
For the difference of £20 quid per tyre i'd stick with what you know.

Go for something mid range. I got some Falken ones from black circles or etyres which are ok.
I cant justify spending a small fortune on mega bucks name branded ones and for the mileage our car does (<6k a year) its not worth it.

*Awaits someone to start preaching that cheap tyres are a waste of money and you may as well drive off a cliff, as thats what'll happen anyway.

AS above.....Cheaper tyres generally last longer but at the sacrifice of a bit of grip...
I.E. My old Vectra's tyres were £200 a time,was lucky to get a year(25,000 miles) out of them,even when swopping them from front to back.Swopped to a cheaper National Tyre's own branded tyre & got the 4 for less than £400 & doubled their mileage with only a small amount of grip lost,they were much better in the snow too....

Yeah, Kumho do perfectly decent, good value tyres. Cheap doesn't have to mean terrible, but at the same time low grip doesn't always mean long-lasting.

My mondeo came with 2 Autogrips and 2 something else awfuls, they might have lasted a million miles but I'll never know as I threw them in the bin after discovering how terrible they were. Fine for good conditions, slow driving when nothing goes wrong but throw in cold rain, or an emergency stop or maneuvre... Nah, won't have that on my car. Though, wheelspin in 4th was fun

Its not the longevity that you need to wary of on cheaper tyres - its their ability in the wet that can be of concern.

Not all, but certainly some, low cost tyres are truly shocking when it comes to aquaplaning. Having aquaplaned at around 70mph joining the M25 once I can tell you it is truly terrifying and not something I am in a rush to do again.

I don't go mad on tyres but I don't skimp either.

Look at http://www.tyre-shopper.co.uk - I have used them loads and tyres are fitted at a local tyre fitting place. Seem to have excellent pricing and a good range of tyres from cheap to very expensive.

Kumho make some decent tyres, but for some reason the Ecsta Sport (KU31) that I used to use, wear unevenly on the rear of my car.

So I have swapped to Matador on the advice of a local tyre place. I think they are MP46's - Hectorra Sport. Have had MP44's in the past too.
They are sister company to Continental apparently, and the tyres are brilliant. Ooodles of grip in the wet & dry, better in snow/ice than the Kumho's and they last a decent amount of time. I don't really know how long, but I do about 23k miles/yr and replace the tyres less than once a year.
Camskill do them for about £110/pair delivered for my wheel size (205/45/16) and my local garage fit them for a tenner a corner.

What size contis are you getting for £60 a corner? I'd snap their hand off

I learned the cheap tyres thing years ago. The thing to do is: Avoid avoid avoid.

They wear out quicker, don't grip nearly as well when slightly worn, are often noisier and their behavior on the limit is rarely consistent.

Buy the very best you can afford from a proper brand: Michelin, Continental, Nokian, Vredstein, Dunlop, Bridgestone, Avon. I'd even avoid the sub-brands like cooper. I have a special place in my soul for the loathing I covet for Pirelli - they're: overated, noisy, have fantastic grip which then suddenly trails off to nothing and wear characteristics that can only make their shareholders happy. I consider them to be a calendar manufacturer that happen to make tyres, really really badly.

My current fave brand is Michelin: the Pilot Sports fitted to the abarth are amazing, loads of feedback, stunning grip in both wet and dry, seemingly indestructible (27k of redline hot-hatch hooliganism on a set before they approached the wear bars & the outer edges are bearly dulled). We've just swaped the contis fitted to the Superb to the Michelin PS3s & found that road rumble has all but disappeared. Very impressed indeed.

I buy top-quality tyres but as excellent fully-inspected etc. part-worns. Currently have Pirelli Cinturato P7s all round for less than £200 fitted. (I decided on these tyres as being the best on the new euro tyre eco-certification thing)
I save about 70% on new price and get at least 2 years out of them. I also don't get enraged when I totally mince a tyre on some kerb or other street furniture! Imagine trashing a brand new £150 tyre within 2 weeks of fitting - gutted x 10! I just buy another matching part worn and get it fitted all for about £50. More cash available for bike bits!

I bought the car secondhand with a full set of budget tyres fitted - after having almost NO grip in the wet I binned them all!

Energy saving tyres aka silica compound. They last well over twice as long as normal tyres.

All Nokian tyres have silica. I've got about 20k miles on my Passat ones and they are 1/4 worn Michelin energy savers on the Prius have 40k miles on and the rears (recently switched to the front) are under half gone. The old fronts are just under half.

Silica makes tyres last longer - same as for bikes.

Many "eco" tires are frankly dangerous to drive.

Not my Nokians or Michelins. I've never skidded or aquaplaned, even that time when I came around a 50mph corner straight into a flood, and I really thought I was going to.

The cheap tyres I have had in the past have lasted donkeys years at the expense of poorer grip. I normally go for something mid range as a balance between the two..

True indeed. I've Kumho Solus at the mo (£120 for a pair) and they're infinitely better than the Kingstars I had on before to the point the Kingstars fealt dangerous in anything other than fully-dry conditions.

On Blackcircles you can get the Auto Express 'Tyre of the year' fully fitted for about £75 each, think its a Goodyear / Dunlop efficient grip. Thats a premium tyre for not much money. Worth it IMO as it has B rated efficency, A rated wet grip and quiet.

Assuming they last 4 years they're cheap as its only £40 an end more expensive than budget tyres.

I went with conti eco tyres, on the basis they had the same/better rateing on the new stickers than a lot of more expensive normal tyres, and were 4db quieter than the michelins.

Had cheep ass Prestivo tyres before though they were fine, never skidded or aquaplaned. But fitted uniroyals after that and they did this the first time a corner caught me by supprise after about 500miles (i.e. they should have scrubbed off any release compound etc)

I always try & get the best I can afford & use tyretest.com to check out those I've no personal experience of.

As has already been pointed out, it's the tyres that are the only point of contact your car has with the road so I don't want to take chances, especially when I see the odd accident investigation report at work. It's surprising how many times tyres have come up as an issue in serious crashes - if you've ever seen skid marks left by a car with ABS etc then you'll understand how dangerous some cheapies can be in an emergency situation.

On Blackcircles you can get the Auto Express 'Tyre of the year' fully fitted for about £75 each, think its a Goodyear / Dunlop efficient grip.

... and if you go to quikfit (or any of the nationals) and tell them that then they'll probably pricematch it.
That's what I did. Had a pair of them on the front for about 3 months now and they seem pretty good so far.

The all terrains winter tires i just stuck on the 4x4 now they are squirmy

Various - all on hire cars , mostly michelins and contis - the contis were by far the scariest , eco contacts i think not going fast at all in a 1.6 insignia - came to a round about on a wet day in holland from a standing start at the entrance and there was just no grip - but they werent spinning just not steering the car thought i was going in the drink.... Great for motorway milesi think- bit like the old van contacts- designed for big miles in straight lines economically